WASHINGTON — The new US Army chief of staff will focus on more and tougher training to ensure the U.S. Army's readiness, calling for added training days and increased Combined Arms Center rotations.
Gen. Mark Milley said "there is no doubt" the Army will one day be required to quickly expand and be ready for a contingency.
"I intend to the modify the calculation, the speed and expansion through the selective use of National Guard and Army Reserve readiness by adding training days and asking for money to increase CTC rotations, to put teeth into the words of our Total Army concept," Milley said in his keynote talk at the AUSA convention on Tuesday.
With threats proliferating around the world, the Army must bring also a new edge to the fight, he said.
"We must increase effectiveness, maintain overmatch ... develop new technologies for ground combat, explore new concepts to fight in innovative ways," he said. An "absolute focus on readiness is critical to build the right Army of the future."
The Army faces terrorists around the globe, Russian aggression in the Crimea Peninsula and beyond, and growing a significant rise instability, he said.
"We see the storm clouds gathering ... we see ISIL presenting a significant threat to regional stability not only deadly but long," Milley said. "But we are not even close to being a hollow Army, no enemy should ever think otherwise. We may bend but the US Army refuses to ever break."
But there is much to do, he said.
"We can't say we are strong to be strong, we must constantly recommit to readiness and must never ever lull into a false sense of complacency and wake up to find ourselves unready for combat," Milley said, repeating his frequent message: "Readiness is our No. 1 priority and there is no other No. 1."
He cited the imperative to fight terrorists and particularly the Islamic State group, saying their "ruthless and apocalyptic vision must be destroyed. We must sustain the capability to fight terrorists; there is much at stake for our country and we have a key role to play in the lengthy struggle."
But that won't be enough. , he said.
"We must maintain the capability to fight across an entire range of enemies. We do not have the luxury of preparing to fight one enemy meny at one time," Milley said.
Russia looms large for the US, and Milley said that country's recent weapons modernization efforts and aggressive campaign in Crimea and now Syria, along with nuclear saber-rattling, is "alarming and irresponsible." The US Army must be prepared as part of a joint force to further deter Russian aggression.
Real and potential threats in Asia also present a role for the Army in the Pacific region.
"The Army has a critical role to play to preserve peace in that region," Milley said, adding that three of the nation's greatest conflicts have been fought there. While China is not considered an enemy now, he said, another power's "intent can change quickly."
Milley said myths endure but they cannot be allowed to shape the force of the future:
• Wars will be short: Many of the major conflicts of the nation's history were expected to be brief, and rarely ever were, perhaps because of "sheer bloody incompetence."
• War can be won at great distances with standoff: "Our missiles are wonderful, I love them," Milley said. But an opponents' will to fight is broken on the ground.
"After the shock and awe comes the march and fight."
• Special forces can do it all: There is no doubt SOF operations are necessary and effective, Milley said, but they can't do every task and every mission.
Even if the Army fully implements what he proposes for training, it "will not be enough," he said. Soldiers must not only be trained, equipped and ready, but they must have capable leaders of character.
"Every major and below knows nothing but war," Milley said. The leaders are experienced, but the Army must also have leaders of "great character."
Milley concluded by remembering the soldiers who have fallen — he said he lost 242.
"They speak to us from the grave," Milley said. "No soldier should ever die because they were not ready."
Email: kcurthoys@militarytimes.com
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Kathleen Curthoys is editor of Army Times. She has been an editor at Military Times for 20 years, covering issues that affect service members. She previously worked as an editor and staff writer at newspapers in Columbus, Georgia; Huntsville, Alabama; Bloomington, Indiana; Monterey, California and in Germany.
